Homeschool Recap, November 30th (Week 17)...

In my life this week...

Ok, so really, I'm posting this on Monday evening... the week and weekend totally got away!  I had a two-day Usborne booth in Keller, so yeah... pure chaos at my house pretty much.  Michael did a fantastic job of taking care of the boys while I was away... they got haircuts, even!  And Preston lost a tooth!  Anyway, I thought I better make sure I get a recap posted, even though it features absolutely NO pictures.  Booooo!

In our Homeschool this week...
Tot School: We continued the 1plus1plus1equals1.net "Tot School" printables this week with letter "L" for Leaf!  We read a lot of fun Fall books: Lucky Leaf, Leaves, Fletcher & The Falling Leaves, Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf and Why Do Leaves Change Color?

Bible:   This week's focus continued with Jesus as "Immanuel."  We continued learning O Come, O Come Emmanuel, the Christmas song.  Preston's memory verse is Matthew 1:23 and we looked up a couple of other verses in The Discoverer's Bible that talked God being with us. 

Reading/Writing: We continued Spelling by Sound & Structure.  Continued with lesson 34-36 in Primary Language Lessons. We continued our read-aloud, Farmer Boy, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Both boys really enjoy this and ask for it (even Callen asks for it by name, heh).

History: 
This weeks main focus was life during the time of the Wilderness Road and Daniel Boone.  We read a few stories from our books about moving from New England further into Tennessee and Kentucky.  And our state study continued with Kentucky.  We read through Kentucky Facts & Symbols and the storybooks A Regular Rolling Noah and Counting On the Woods.

Math: Preston started his Part B of Math Mammoth, Second Grade.  Working on hundreds and skip counting by different numbers, using addition and subtraction.

Science:  This week's them was weather.  We read two pages of First Encyclopedia of Science on different kinds of weather.  And we talked about wind with our Science with Air book.

Music/Art: Continued learning "America, The Beautiful."  We also started on a World's Greatest Artists, Vol 1 unit study, and our first artist is Leonardo Da Vinci. We read a couple of biography books on him (Leonardo Da Vinci and Da Vinci), and looked at a bunch of his art online.  Next week we'll be trying to recreate some of his art!

Spanish: Continued with the next two episodes of Salsa. Started up La Clase Divertida, Lesson 7 about el cuerpo.  We reviewed words having to do with "El Cuerpo" in our First Thousand Words in Spanish. 


We are using Adventures in My Father's World. See our curriculum here.



[This post contains affiliate links for Usborne Books & More and Amazon.com.  By clicking on those links and purchasing items, you are helping me continue to be a SAHM so that I can focus on homeschooling my children!  Thank you!]

Sears Holiday Cheer Review

I was sent a Sears gift card by Smile360 to experience the Sear's Christmas Shop.  I went a few weeks before Thanksgiving, so it was just getting started, but already... the mood was festive!  They had trees and lights and fun outdoor displays up and twinkling!  Household items like towels, dishes and decor was in ample supply. And even though we don't decorate till after Preston's birthday (Dec 4th) it certainly made me long for the time when we could bust out the tinsel and garland!

Since we didn't have our Christmas stuff out of the attic yet, I wasn't sure what would really be on our decorating list just yet.  But, I found some adorable coffee mugs for all of us, and well, I couldn't pass them up!  Being a coffee addict, and having passed on my love of cocoa to my kids, I am always on the lookout for cute, functional mugs for all of us.  The kids' mugs are especially hard to find, because they are still young and need something that will keep the spillage to a minimum.  Sears had just the thing I was looking for, though!  Yipee!

The kid cups have lids and straws and swirly glitter!

Cute penguin mug for me, "manly" Fa La Latte for hubby!

[I was sent a Sears gift card as described above from Smile360 in exchange for my opinion via facebook, twitter, blog and/or word-of-mouth.  I was not further compensated for my opinion and the text written above is in my own words.]

Crock-Pot® Seasoning Mixes Review

I received some samples of Crock-Pot® Seasoning Mixes from Smiley 360.  Always eager to try new things in my slow cooker, I was pretty pumped to give these mixes a go.  The first one I used was BBQ Pulled Pork.  Now, I make pulled pork quite a bit in my slow cooker, and while I like it, honestly, my husband isn't a fan of the way I make it.  But, I'm happy to say that he, the kids and my brother-in-law (who is a picky eater!) all really liked it this time around.  Yay!  It was simple to make following the recipe on the back, and yeah... came out delicious!!!

Over the course of the next few weeks, I also made the Savory Pot Roast and the Hearty Beef Stew, and they were both wonderful.  I've always had a hard time making Beef Stew come out just right, but I nailed it with the help of this seasoning mix and the recipe on the back.  Woo hoo!  I felt like such an awesome wife/mom/cook on the nights I made these, because they were so good (and EASY!).  I will certainly be picking these up again in the future!!!

[I was sent samples of the above mentioned product from Smile360 in exchange for my opinion via facebook, twitter, blog and/or word-of-mouth.  I was not further compensated for my opinion and the text written above is in my own words.]

BIC Mark-It™ Permanent Markers Review

We received a package of BIC Mark-It™ Permanent Markers from Smiley360 along with a fun pumpkin decorating kit.  And, well, you know how I feel about pumpkins!  The kids and I had a blast coloring and glittering the little pumpkins, making them all kinds of lovely and fun!

 

 

We used the BIC Mark-It™ Permanent Markers, and they were a huge hit at my house.  These markers come in so many different colors, you can't really go wrong!  And they write on nearly any surface you can think of... which certainly can't be said for a lot of other so-called permanent markers.  Besides the pumpkin decorating, I have used these markers to decorate cards, make notes, color in fun little school activities and more!  Definitely diggin' them.  These are perfect for any artist in your family, or simply to have on hand for anytime you need a permanent marker in a color other than black!

[I was sent samples of the above mentioned product from Smile360 in exchange for my opinion via facebook, twitter, blog and/or word-of-mouth.  I was not further compensated for my opinion and the text written above is in my own words.]

Homeschool Recap, November 16th (Thanksgiving Week)...

In my life this week...

This week was fun, and that means it flew by.  It was pretty chill.  We didn't do a full load of schoolwork, but focused on Thanksgiving and Fall activities.  My Father's World has a built-in Thanksgiving week to use whenever you get there, and technically you're supposed to do it the week of Thanksgiving... but I wanted to take that week completely off... so we did it this week instead.  Yay flexibility!  Anyway, we ran errands.  Had scouts, homeschool group meeting and AWANA as usual.  Put my van in the shop and will be picking it up this evening... praying they were able to fix all the crazy noises it was making.  I swear, some days it sounded like it was just ready to crumble into a million pieces, then the next day, not a peep out of it.  I'm pretty sure people thought I was crazy when I tried to explain this to them, but the shop found some issues that seem to explain all that.  I hope!  Praise God for my parents who are paying for this van operation!  I am so blessed!!!

In our Homeschool this week...
Tot School: We didn't do a specific tot school this week, but Little Brother got to do lots of the same stuff we were doing!  So he enjoyed that a great deal.  I also had a few easy things for him to do that I printed out.  He traced lines, went over some letters like "P is for Pilgrim," did lots of coloring and such.

Bible:   We focused on verses expressing thankfulness, of course.  We looked up several passages in The Discoverer's Bible that talked about being thankful for what we have and what God' done for us.  We'll continue trying to memorize these verses next week too.

Reading/Writing: We continued Spelling by Sound & Structure.  Had to do this to keep on track to finish by end of school year.  Preston also did several fun activities, like write a story describing "How To" help a turkey escape being Thanksgiving dinner.  He came up with the information, I wrote it for him and he illustrated the scenes.  He also filled out an acrostic for AUTUMN that contained words having to do with Fall.  And, as always, we have been reading like crazy.  In fact, I had checked out a bunch of books from the library for us to read together, but one day while I was working, he ended up sitting and ready nearly every one of them on his own.  No fair!  Haha.  Here is what we checked out: Gus the Pilgrim Turkey, We Gather Together, Now Please Get Lost, A Turkey for Thanksgiving, One Little, Two Little, Three Little Pilgrims, Apples & Pumpkins, Thank You, Sarah: The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving, The First Thanksgiving, The Thanksgiving Story and The Tale of Two Bad Mice (which isn't about Thanksgiving, but Callen picked it up and then Preston said, "Hey, we're your two bad little mice, we have to get this!"  How could I refuse?)

Callen enjoys visiting this little girl at the library

Preston, well.... yeah.

How to Help a Turkey Escape, basically he just needs to blend in!

History: Obviously, we have been going over the history of Thanksgiving some more.  We've been reading several chapters a day from Stories of the Pilgrims, which is really interesting because it even focuses on before the Pilgrims went to Holland... I haven't found many books that go over that part of the story much, so it's been nice to learn more in depth of how awful they were treated in England when they refused to obey King James.  And Preston wrote up a quick summary of why Thanksgiving is celebrated in America.


Math: Preston did one little Fall-themed addition and subtraction worksheet.  He also helps me do math around the house, and he spent a long time helping me do some math work for my book business earlier this week, trying reconcile my inventory and sales slips.

Science:  We did some pumpkin experiments with our Halloween pumpkin, which is still in great shape since we didn't carve it.  Preston did some estimations about it's weight, if it would float and how big around it was, then we measured to find the real answers.  Both boys created a pumpkin book about it's stages of growth from a seed to being ready.

It's gotta be 52 pounds! (it was 23)

It'll never float!  (it did)

Music/Art: We worked on some fun coloring and crafts for the grandmas to use as decor, lots of ideas from here.  The boys did turkey handprints in paint... Callen giggled through the whole thing, so cute!  We also made Thankful Pumpkins, and the boys put in pictures of what they were thankful for... including Mommy's iPad, apple juice, snacks, tv, and oh yeah... family.  Lol.

Falling leaves

Thankful Pumpkins!

Spanish: To stay on track, we did two reviews  First Thousand Words in Spanish. It was "La Tienda" and "Los Alimentos."  Mmm!

We are using Adventures in My Father's World. See our curriculum here.



[This post contains affiliate links for Usborne Books & More and Amazon.com.  By clicking on those links and purchasing items, you are helping me continue to be a SAHM so that I can focus on homeschooling my children!  Thank you!]

Homeschool Recap, November 9th (Week 16)...

In my life this week...

I am posting this recap only, y'know, 4 days late, but who's counting, right?  Hmm.  We had a great school week last week, but a crazy busy weekend.  I had three Usborne booths/events, just one after the other.  That certainly kept us hopping!  Feel like I totally abandoned my family for the whole weekend, but I really did have fun.  And the work I put in helped to further my business and get my recruit to hit her first important sales goal, which in the end, helps me too!  Thankfully, this week we are taking things easy and doing only Thanksgiving studies, and next week we'll be completely off of school to focus on Thanksgiving.  Woo hoo!

Oh, and on Tuesday, we closely watched the results of the election.  I helped Preston keep track of poll results on a map.  We wrote in how many electoral votes each state got and colored in the state as the polls were called.  At first it was great fun for him, but eventually, he was bored and I finished it up for him.  Ha!

Charting the results as the come in.

Finished project.

In our Homeschool this week...
Tot School: We continued the 1plus1plus1equals1.net "Tot School" printables this week with letter "K" for Keys!  It was supposed to include other household items, but we didn't really go into that too much.  We did read a couple of abc/counting books from the library: Little Birds ABC and Anno's Counting House.

Bible:   This week's focus was on Jesus as "Immanuel."  So, of course, we started learning the Christmas song.  I only know the first verse, so we both get to learn as we go!  Preston's memory verse is Matthew 1:23 and we looked up a couple of other verses in The Discoverer's Bible that talked God being with us.  We'll continue on this subject after Thanksgiving.

Reading/Writing: We continued Spelling by Sound & Structure.  Continued with lesson 31-33 in Primary Language Lessons. We continued our read-aloud, Farmer Boy, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Both boys really enjoy this and ask for it (even Callen asks for it by name, heh).

History: 
Rhode Island - Books: Rhode Islands Facts & Symbols and Some of the Adventures of Rhode Island Red (tall tales about a boy the size of an egg and raised by chickens, lol).
Vermont - Books: Vermont Facts & Symbols and The Canada Geese Quilt.  I checked out the book and audio cassette from the library, but, of course, the cassette did not work at all. Sad face.  So, I sat and read the whole book to the boys.. and it's kinda sad, but they sat and listened (while I choked back tears and my voice broke, geez).
Only two states this week, then we studied about Daniel Boone.  We read from our Story of the U.S. and Pioneers book (from MFW), along with a booked called Bewildered for Three Days.  Preston read nearly the entire book outloud to me while I worked one afternoon, he did a great job.  We also did a lapbook on Daniel Boone from here.  It's loaded with info on his life, adventures and legends.  I had a lot of fun doing this with Preston, who seemed to enjoy it as well.  After Daddy got home, he showed it to him and they talked about how our family line is connected to Daniel Boone.

Finished lapbook and Daddy talking about our family tree.

Math: Preston finished up Chapter 5 in our Math Mammoth book, which also finished up the first workbook (there are two).  This last part was over fractions, which he has no problem with besides determining which is bigger when they're really close.  He did a Mixed Review of everything we've covered so far, a chapter review (geometric shapes and fractions) and then the test, making an 83%.

Science:  We went back to our Science with Air book, and talked about how can change the size of something (causing a bottle to expand or collapse on itself when heated or cooled) and how warm air rises.  Did some fun little simple experiments to emphasize those points.

Music/Art: Continued learning "America, The Beautiful" this week, and finished up listening to the CD of "The Nutcracker."  We also watched an online BBC version of the ballet... Callen and I fell asleep, Preston was quite bored.  Haha!  Oh well.  We tried!  We also read The Nutcracker Doll, which is a cute little story about a girl participating in the ballet.

Ninja superhero ballerinas.

Spanish: Continued with the next two episodes of Salsa. We reviewed words having to do with "La Fiesta" in our First Thousand Words in Spanish.  And we didn't do anything from La Clase Divertidas.


We are using Adventures in My Father's World. See our curriculum here.



[This post contains affiliate links for Usborne Books & More and Amazon.com.  By clicking on those links and purchasing items, you are helping me continue to be a SAHM so that I can focus on homeschooling my children!  Thank you!]

Homeschool Recap, November 2nd (Week 14)...

In my life this week...

So, we took last week off of school as a bit of a "Fall Break," but also because I worked Wed-Fri at Power FM.  It was great to be back there for a little bit.  I had a blast catching up with everyone, meeting some new folks and just doing something different for a few days.  As soon as that was over, I had an UBAM booth at a Craft Fair in Fort Worth on Saturday all day long, meanwhile Michael went and picked up his dad from the airport... and he stayed with us through Tuesday evening.  We really enjoyed having him here, the kids had a lot of fun with Grandpa.  We had a Scout Meeting and Halloween and just a ton of errands and various things to do.  Felt like we shoulda taken this week off too, as school was definitely a challenge to squeeze into our day, lol. 

Enjoying time with grandpa in the nice weather!

Fun and food!

The boys found their Dorothy, Toto & Lion!

What I'm Watching on TV (well, not really on tv, online!)...
I'm missing SMASH and Bunheads... wondering if they're gonna come back.  And man, I hate waiting for new episodes of Psych, lol.  Right now I'm really only watching Parenthood and Once Upon a Time.  Occasionally I'll watch whatever show Michael is watching (he follows a bunch), like The Mentalist or NCIS.  I watched the first two episodes of Nashville last night.  We'll see. 

In our Homeschool this week...
Tot School: We continued the 1plus1plus1equals1.net "Tot School" printables this week with letter "J" for Jellyfish and Under the Sea Life!  Callen seems to really enjoy all the fun pictures and information about fish and dolphins and whales and octopi and whatnot.  We checked out several tool books from the library, including The World of a Jellyfish, An Octopus is Amazing, A City Under The Sea, Clumsy Crab, Fidgety Fish and Abigale The Happy Whale.  I also found a little United States Workbook that Callen can do while we're working on the states with Preston.  Basically, he just pulled off all the stickers and stuck 'em on one page, but whatever... it's his.  Heh.

Matching Capital and Lower Case letters.

Learning about the States.

Bible:   Preston continued John 14:6.  We looked up verses in The Discoverer's Bible that talked Jesus being the only way to God, to heaven.  There are so many!

Reading/Writing: We continued Spelling by Sound & Structure.  Preston stumbled a bit over 'houses' and 'kisses,' but I think he just wasn't focused that day, lol.  Continued with lesson 28-30 in Primary Language Lessons. We continued our read-aloud, Farmer Boy, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. 

History: 
New Hampshire - Books: New Hampshire: Facts & Symbols and Ox-Cart Man.
Virginia - Books: Virginia, The Blue Hill Meadows and All Those Secrets of the World.
New York - Books: Journey Around New York From A-Z, The Copper Lady and Mirette and Bellini Cross Niagara Falls.
North Carolina - Books: North Carolina and Soap! Soap! Don't Forget The Soap!
Preston has a notebook page for each state, on the back is a bunch of information and interesting facts about the state, and on the front is a picture of the state, it's motto, state bird and flower, plus the year it came into the U.S.A.  He colors the page, writes the state capital and the state abbreviation.  He also colors in each state on a map of the U.S. as well (I make him hunt down where the state is located).

Working on New York!

Found a mini-version of the Statue of Liberty in Grand Prairie!

Math: Preston continued Chapter 5 of his Math Mammoth workbook this week, which is shapes and geometry.  We cut out and created a cube, cylinder, pyramid and a cone, and talked about things in the world that come in these shapes.

Science:  This week's focus continued to be birds.  While running around doing errands on Monday, Preston read from Birds, Nests & Eggs all about cardinals.  We also watched a video we borrowed from the library based on the book Birdsongs (also had Bees, Snails and Peacock Tails, which went along well with our shape study in math).  We also did the activity from a few weeks back where we made our own Edible Bird Nests!

Twigs, grass and mud bird nest - only not.

Music/Art: Continued learning "America, The Beautiful" this week, and listened to some more of "The Nutcracker."  The boys worked on some artwork involving making models from things around the house (recyclables). 

Spanish: Continued with the next two episodes of Salsa. We reviewed words having to do with "El Hospital" in our First Thousand Words in Spanish.  And we continued with Lesson 6 of La Clase Divertida!.


We are using Adventures in My Father's World. See our curriculum here.



[This post contains affiliate links for Usborne Books & More and Amazon.com.  By clicking on those links and purchasing items, you are helping me continue to be a SAHM so that I can focus on homeschooling my children!  Thank you!]

Coffee Mug Swap 2012

I joined up on Cook Family Chronicles for a fun coffee mug swap last month.  I love coffee, and I greatly enjoy fun or pretty coffee mugs too!  This swap was perfect for me!  Lol.

I was paired up with Monika from The Little Backyard Farm in Illinois.  She checked out my blog and saw that I am slightly obsessed with pumpkins and Fall (what? how could she tell?!?  hahahaha!).  Anyway, she sent me this adorable coffee mug featuring a flower and butterfly and some yummy Pumpkin Quick Bread Mix!  And check out the gorgeous card she sent as well!  I was a little bummed that the coffee mug got chipped right on the rim while in transit, but I was able to superglue it mostly back together (along with some of my finger, oops!) and now it's sitting on one of my high shelves so I can still marvel at it's beauty! 

What a fantastic package to open!  Love it all!

You can see Monika's post about the mug she received from me here on her blog.  And you can also check out the rest of the Swap Posts from Cook Family Chronicles here.  Such fun mugs!!!  Loved this.  Thanks, Heather!!!

October 2012 Tweets and Instagrams to Remember...

Oct 1st - I may or may not have just locked my children outside. What?! The weather is nice, isn't it?

Oct 1st - My mantle pumpkin patch is growing! http://instagr.am/p/QQxYyNIvJA/

Oct 4th - Eating lunch w/some gators at the Ftw Zoo!  http://twitpic.com/b10xae

Oct 6th -Christmas Merry Have You  http://twitpic.com/b1p74r

Oct  12th - I love Fall, hate to complain. But these allergies are kicking my butt. I just wanna breathe through my nose & stop clawing at my eyes.

Oct 12th - Pulled off a Surprise 50th Birthday party for my mom and aunt (twins). Whole family together, yay!

Oct 14th - Why are people so excited about tv shows involving ducks and zombies this week? I don't know what they are & don't understand the appeal.

Oct 15th - Dear Callen, if u were potty trained already, running out of diapers wouldnt be such a big deal. Just saying. Sigh.

Oct 16th - Wow, I'm glad this is just his 'pretend to be mad' face, yikes! #zombiebaby? @rosie_boat, this is for u! http://instagr.am/p/Q3EaMzovJu/

Oct 19th - Why dont I ever notice how homeless my kids look when they dress themselves until we are already out in public? #teachingindependence

Oct 20th - Zomg, where ARE we?  http://twitpic.com/b5wxwq

Oct  20th - At a park in Arl, just saw a guy riding a bike with a sheep running beside him. Seriously, not a dog, an actual sheep. WHAT?!?

Oct 21st - You know you have amazing friends when something like this gets left on your doorstep. #pumpkin http://instagr.am/p/RDjNcrIvEO/

Oct 23rd - 8am, 2yr old rolls over next to me, grabs my face & asks... can we go to Sonic?!?

Oct 23rd - Sometimes when I look at my followers, I'm like "that makes sense" and other times I'm all "What the moo cow?!" #justsaying

Oct 23rd - Ending our field trip to the #pumpkin patch and garden center with lunch, yay coupons! http://instagr.am/p/RIdLiGovPd/

Oct 25th - Its all fun and games till Preston dumps the whole bottle of glitter.

Oct 28th - Its Officially Grace Fellowship Church Day in Grand Prairie, sayeth the Mayor. Pretty cool! Happy 10 years, GFC!

Oct 29th - Zomg, @Target, really? Christmas commercials before Halloween? I love you, but nooooo!